New Intel Core i7-980X extreme edition (Gulftown) to be released on March 16

According to news from Japan, the Intel desktop CPU lineup has some new additions in the upcoming months.

On March 16, Intel will probably have a new processor on sale, it is known as Core i7 980X Extreme edition (Gulftown). The Core i7 960 Bloomfield seems to be cancelled.

In addition, the following processor will make its debut on the date indicated on the far right

- Core i7-930″ (Bloomfield, 2.8GHz, tb/3.06GHz) 2 / 28
- Core i7-980X Extreme Edition?(Gulftown,3.33GHz,tb/3.6GHz)3/16 · “Core i7-980X Extreme Edition” (Gulftown, 3.33GHz, tb/3.6GHz) 3 / 16
- Core i5-680 (Clarkdale, 3.6GHz, tb/3.8GHz) 4 mid-May during the month
- Core i7-880 (Lynnfield,3.06GHz,tb/3.73GHz) 2010/Q2 · “Core i7-880″ (Lynnfield, 3.06GHz, tb/3.73GHz) 2010/Q2
- Core i3-550 (Clarkdale,3.2GHz,tb/) 2010/Q2 · “Core i3-550″ (Clarkdale, 3.2GHz, tb / No) 2010/Q2
- Pentium E6700 (Penryn,3.43GHz) 2010/Q2 · “Pentium E6700″ (Penryn, 3.43GHz) 2010/Q2
- Core i7-970 (Gulftown,3.33GHz,tb/3.46GHz?2010/Q3 · “Core i7-970″ (Gulftown, 3.33GHz, tb/3.46GHz) 2010/Q3

Some users of Google’s Nexus One smartphone had problems connecting via carrier T-Mobile’s network earlier today, leading to a rash of complaints on blogs and other online forums.

According to a Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) spokesperson, the outage was short-lived.
“Some Nexus One customers have experienced issues with their T-Mobile data connection. This issue has now been resolved,” the spokesperson said in a statement e-mailed to InternetNews.com. “Customers affected by this issue might need to restart their Nexus One device to restore their T-Mobile data connection.”

Google suggested contacting T-Mobile for an explanation of the cause of the outage, but the carrier didn’t offer any reasons for the glitch.

Source

Huawei recently announced that MobileOne (“M1”), a leading mobile communication operator, has selected Huawei as its sole provider of ATCA (Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture) based IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) solution. Huawei will help M1 enrich the national bandwidth network service and build its FMC (fixed and mobile convergence) capacities. Based on Huawei’s leading IMS solution, M1 can continue to provide rich multi-media services for its subscribers, including IP Centrex, IPTV and HD video etc.

With the all-round starting of Singapore’s national bandwidth construction, the FTTH based voice and multi-media service will be the key point of development of Singapore’s future network, which brings good opportunity for M1. Through the cooperation with Huawei, M1 will realize smooth transformation from mobile operator to Fixed and Mobile Convergence on an all-round base.

“Based on Huawei IMS solution, M1 will establish a leading future-faced network frame, which will be helpful to improve the network capacity and will at the same time provide various innovative multi-media services for fixed mobile users.” said Mr. Patrick Scodeller, CTO of M1.

Huawei’ s customized ATCA-based IMS solutions allow operators to achieve rapid network deployment and shorten time to market and support M1? s business transformation by providing subscribers with advanced multi-media services,” said Mr. Jin Huang, vice president of Core Network, Huawei.

The LG GW620 also known as the EVE in Canada has been launched late last year in France and other European countries.

Tomorrow, LG GW620 Android phone will make its debut in Singapore. At the moment, we do not know about the price plans for it, but we suspect it to be priced very competitively to the Samsung GalaxySpica.

Samsung has promised an upgrade to Android 2.0 by early Q2 2010. LG, so far has not indicated it will provide an update to the Android 2.0 Eclair OS.

The probably only feature that outshines is theslide out QWERTY keyboard that makes it easier for users to SMS, Twitter or Facebook on the go.

LG only provided handsets to bloggers and that didn’t generate too much interest as technical reviewers aren’t able to get their hands on on the handset.

Mozilla is looking to take the mobile world with storm with the release of Firefox Mobile “Fennec” for Maemo. However, another interesting news from Phandroid confirms that a Firefox Mobile version forAndroid is under works and will be made available for downloads soon.

This news comes shortly after the release of  Firefox Mobile “Fennec” RC3 for Maemo, which suggests that a final release of the Maemo version is just around the corner. Firefox Mobile for Android will be made available as a beta release somewhere in February 2010. Unlike other browsers, Firefox Mobile has support for extensions. However, it still has to challenge the mighty Opera Mini and the impressive Skyfire before it goes on to become one of the best browsers for smartphones.

Androidoperatingsystem.net reported on a rumored Samsung Galaxy 2 back in early December. At the time, they had a tweet to go by. The specs included a 4-inch, 32GB device with Android 2.1 as the backbone.

Today we’re hearing a slightly different, if not fuller, list of specs – 1GHz Snapdragon chip, 3.7-inch AMOLED display, 5 megapixel cam, Android 2.1, and 32GB internal storage.

A 3.7-inch AMOLED screen would, in theory, have it looking as sharp as the one found on the Nexus One. The 32GB of memory would put it at double that found in the Motorola Droid and considerably higher than what most Android phones come with.

Seriously, it is not too difficult to guess the future specifications of Android phones. It is SnapDragon 1GHz, 3.7 or 4.2 or even 4.8″ screen.

Source

According to a report on digitimes, Sales director of Microstar Taiwan mentioned that MSI intends to launch a NVIDIA Tegra based Tablet in the 2H 2010. That is the same time when Apple delivers its iPad (with no wings .

Chen pointed out that MSI’s tablet PC will feature a 10-inch color touchscreen with wireless support and will be light-weight and thin for mobility, while featuring all the functions of a regular notebook. However, MSI will be flexible of the tablet’s specifications and will launch different models based on market demand.

Somewhat sounds like a rant but it is true that the Apple iPad. It simply doesn’t support Adobe Flash! 

It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple’s DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers. And without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.

If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate, or JibJab — not to mention the millions of other sites on the web — I’ll be out of luck.

Adobe and more than 50 of our partners in the Open Screen Project are working to enable developers and content publishers to deliver to any device, so that consumers have open access to their favorite interactive media, content, and applications across platform, regardless of the device that people choose to use.

Source

Shouldn’t SSD be more reliable than the traditional HDDs as it has less movable parts. That doesn’t seem to be the case to me as my Intel X25-M has just died for no reason.

First it was 2 random BSOD during my review writing and my work were not saved! The third time, the system rebooted on its own and the worst thing that happened is the message “No boot device”.

Luckily the PC is able to detect the SSD device in BIOS. So I took the SSD to another PC and plug it into the SATA port. I went into Windows XP and checked. The 4 partitions of 20GB each are all gone, it has become a single 80GB partition.

Knowing that, I took out Arconis Disk Director 10, trying to recover the lost partitions. The scan took a while and couldn’t find any partitions.

I took a rest and shut down the system and that is probably the biggest mistake. After I am back and started up the machine, the BIOS seems to hung on and refuse to boot my Win XP from the HDD. It seems to be unable to detect the presense of the SSD.

1 minute passed and it bypassed and went into WIn XP. Gosh, the SSD is nowhere to be seen in MMC (disk management). The SSD has totally missing in action. All my 80GB of OS and DATA are just gone like that without  a proper back up !

The irony is that all my 3 old 80GB HDDs are still functioning well after 3 to 5 yrs without any issues. I doubt I would want high speed with data loss in the end. SSD is probably not for me but for non data critical OS and system files where you can replace.

I wonder if anyone is capable of retriving the data inside or any tools you know, please let me know.

Thanks.

Kingston Digital Adds TRIM Support, Boosts Capacity in

New, Faster SSDNow V+ Solid-State Drive

Second-Generation V+ SSD Boosts System Performance  

Hsinchu, Taiwan – (January 27, 2010) – Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the release of the second-generation SSDNow V+ solid-state drive. The SSDNow V+ solid-state drive has Windows 7 TRIM support, is available up to 512GB and provides faster performance than the previous generation. 

“The new SSDNow V+ is an ideal solid-state drive for high-level consumers and in corporate environments where efficiency and performance are important as more system resources are in use,” said Nathan Su, Flash Memory Sales Director, APAC Region, Kingston. “Users will be more productive as the drive now features TRIM support, is available in higher capacities and is speedier overall with improved read/write speeds.” 

The addition of TRIM support helps keep the SSDNow V+ maintain optimal write speed throughout its lifespan. Using PCMark Vantage 1.0.1 for Windows 7, the 512GB SSDNow V+ drive received a score of 28,264, whereas a 7200RPM hard-disk drive reached 3,294**. PCMark Vantage 1.0.1 for Windows 7 runs a series of tests such as operating system startup, importing photos, adding music to Windows Media Center and application loading. The score is an indicator of how many bytes are moved per second.  

The SSDNow V+ is the latest addition to Kingston’s SSDNow family of solid-state drives. It is available in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities. As part of Kingston’s goal to provide an easy upgrade path, the drive is also available with a bundle that includes cloning software, 2.5″ USB enclosure, 2.5″ to 3.5″ mounting brackets and SATA data and power cables.  

The Kingston SSDNow V+ solid-state drive is backed by a three-year warranty, free tech support and legendary Kingston reliability. For more information visit: www.kingston.com/asia. 

Kingston SSDNow V+ Features and Specifications:

• Sequential Speed*: 230MB/sec. read

              180MB/sec. write

• Innovative: 2.5″ form factor; uses MLC NAND Flash memory components
• Silent: runs silent and cool with no moving parts
• Shock Resistant: no moving mechanical parts means the SSD handles rougher conditions
• Supports S.M.A.R.T.: Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology
• Guaranteed: three-year Kingston warranty, free tech support
• Interface: SATA 1.5Gb/sec. and 3.0Gb/sec.
• Capacity¹: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
• Storage temperatures: -40° C to 85° C
• Operating temperatures: 0° C to 70° C
• Dimensions: 69.85mm x 100mm x 9.5mm
• Weight: 84 grams
• Vibration operating: 2.17G
• Vibration non-operating: 20G
• Operating Shock: 1500G
• Power specs: 2.6W active; 0.15W idle
• Life expectancy: 1,000,000 hours MTBF

* Based on internal testing. Performance may vary based on system settings.

** Test system: Intel DG945ID Desktop Motherboard; Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 CPU at 2.83GHz; 4GB system memory; on-board SATA 3Gbps with AHCI-enabled; Windows 7 Professional x64

¹Some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions and thus is not available for data storage.  For more information, please consult Kingston’s Flash Memory Guide at Kingston.com/Flash_Memory_Guide. 

Digitimes reports that a last minute issue discovered during the validation of ATI Radon HD 5830-based reference boards has pushed back the launch date of 25 Jan to a later date.

The issue is related to circuits on the board resulting in error on software testing platforms.

It would probably take some time before issues are rectified and AMD Radeon HD 5830 should be ready by Chinese New Year.

Check out what is the iPad, how it differentiates from the rest.

Apple officially unveil its latest gadget that will put a direct challenge to netbooks and ebook readers. Here comes the iPad. It will be priced at the following range from as low as USD 500 for 16GB model up.

Size and weight¹

Height:

9.56 inches (242.8 mm)

Width:

7.47 inches (189.7 mm)

Depth:

0.5 inch (13.4 mm)

Weight:

1.5 pounds (.68 kg) Wi-Fi model;

1.6 pounds (.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model

What will Apple announce in 2 hours time ? iTablet ? What is in stored for iPhone OS 4 ?

These are what keeps most Apple fans wondering for the past week.  Join in the predictions and what you think will shape the new gadgets in the thread link below

Link

ASRock USB 3.0 Card

10X faster transfer speed Speed up to 5 Gb/s Upgrade Flexibility ASRock USB 3.0 Card allows you to enjoy the high speed data transfer rate up to 5.0 Gb/s, which is ten times faster than current USB 2.0 standard (480 Mb/s). With two USB 3.0 ports on ASRock USB 3.0 Card, you can enjoy USB 3.0 super speed. Ultimate Data Transfer Speed Delivering data transfer rates up to ten times faster than USB 2.0 with optimized power efficiency, USB 3.0 card features super speed at 5 Gb/s. Upgrade Flexibility Utilizing the new generation USB3.0 interface, ASRock USB 3.0 card includes much advantages, such as higher data transfer speed and more flexible to adopt in different ASRock motherboards.

Specifications

The specification is subject to change without notice in advance. The brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Any configuration other than original product specification is not guaranteed.

Samsung demonstrates Samsung App Store.

From our usual sources of information, the upcoming 6 core Thuban processors will make it’s first appearance in the market somewhere in May 2010. If our predictions are right, we would see lots of them at the Computex Taipei 2010 show to be held in June 2010.

The codenamed Thuban series of processors are hex cores processors of 45nm process. We understand that it will have a 95W TDP. Some information we gathered showed that some models can be up to 125W which we can’t confirm.

The accompanying chipsets would be available as early as Apr 2010. We expect it to be the AMD 890FX discrete chipset (with SB850). From what we understand, it is said that the AM3 socket processor should also work with older 790FX or 790GX boards with a BIOS update (some models).

We look forward to see the first Hexcore processor from AMD.

Discuss in forums

Here are some possible models

For readers who are keen to know what is upcoming. We have information that we expect to see the AMD 890FX chispets ready by March or April this year. This new chipsets are meant for the “LEO” platform and it will support the upcoming 6 core processor for Desktop.  Forward into 2011, they have plans for the 32nm Bulldozer CPU with 4 to 8 cores and next generation graphics.

As for mainstream, i twill be Dorado platform which consists of 890GX with integrated graphics. In 2011 “LYNX” which puts the graphics within the CPU.  Although nothing is mentioned about the chipset or processor, we expect to see AMD 880G, 890GX as the chipsets of choice paired with SB850 south bridge that comes with SATA3 and RAID5 support.

For the AMD notebook series, we are expecting the “Danube” that supports up to quad core ,DX11 and a 7 hrs resting battery life. According to AMD, Resting battery Life is like the Standby hours on your mobile phone. In 2011, we see another Fusion product, bringing the desktop experience to the notebooks.

Google Nexus One customers could finally have a fix to at least one of their problems. Google says it will soon release a patch that will improve the spotty 3G coverage that has left many Nexus One customers frustrated.

“Our engineers have uncovered specific cases for which a software fix should improve connectivity to 3G for some users,” a Google employee commented on the company’s Nexus One forum.”We are testing this fix now and initial results are positive.”

Google hopes to offer the fix as a software update by wireless download to Nexus One users in “the next week or so.”

Nexus One is the first Android 2.1 mobile phone that is sold direct to customers or with a contract in US T-mobile at $180. The no subsidy versoin costs $530.

Complains were spotty 3G coverage which drops to the slower EDGE network in use. Google isn’t promising that all Nexus phones will be fixed with its update. “It may be, however, that users are experiencing problems as a result of being on the edge or outside of 3G coverage, which a product fix cannot address,” says the Google employee.

Source